It is known to mount electronic devices on walls, ceilings, bookcases, entertainment systems, stadium walkways, automobile trunks, and all manner of other surfaces. Mounting systems are usually semi-permanent, using screws, nails, and so forth.
Semi-permanent installations, however, can create numerous difficulties. Often, the electrical connection box is installed in a crooked manner, and the mounting system fails to allow sufficient leeway for correction. Removal and reinstallation of the connection box to correct the alignment can be extremely time consuming. Even properly installed devices can pose problems if the device needs to be removed for repair, replacement, cleaning, or other purposes.
One solution to resolving crooked installations is to employ a rotatable coupling between the mounted device and the connection box. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,155,027 to Lee (September 2006) teaches a speaker mounting system in which the speaker mount is adjusted for speaker placement by rotation around an anchor screw. U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,409 to Baron et al. (March 1998) teaches a mounting system in which a speaker is rotated upon a mounting bracket. These and all other extrinsic materials discussed herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
There are magnetic mounting systems that overcome the problems associated with semi-permanent mounts, but they don't allow the mount to rotate, at least not in the plane of the wall, ceiling or other structure upon which the mount is being mounted. U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,097 to Tucker (November 1974), for example, teaches a telephone mounting system in which magnets on the mount engage a striker plate of the outlet for convenient installation and removal of the mount to/from the outlet.
Still further the known magnetic mounting systems and the rotatable coupling systems have no automatic coupling of the electrical connectors. Thus, what is still needed in the art is a mounting system in which the mount is magnetically coupled to the base, and at least one pair of electrical connectors automatically mate as the mount is mounted upon the base.